Paternity
by Purple Eyed Cat
Summary: Lin Beifong never knew the man who helped give her life. However, she has always known her father. Snippets of a Tokka relationship, mention of Linzin and Kataang as well as Pemzin. One-shot, complete.


**A/N: I've finally returned to the Avatar fandom! After that amazing season of Korra, I really want to see what happened in the seventy year gap. Not that Korra and her Krew aren't amazing, but I think my heart will always belong to the Gaang. After reading The Promise, Parts 1 and 2 yesterday, I had a story that was begging to be written. I am a Tokka shipper, and will always be, so of course I was presented with the problem of Linzin. This is my attempt to show snippets of Sokka and Toph's relationship throughout the seventy-year gap, with attention paid to the family unit they may have created with Lin. I hope you enjoy my theories as shown on paper!**

**Disclaimer: It all belongs to Mike and Bryan. They deserve the credit for these characters, not me. **

**Summary:** Lin Beifong never knew the man who helped give her life. However, she has always known her father. Snippets of a Tokka relationship, mention of Linzin and Kataang as well as Pemzin. One-shot, complete.

* * *

Paternity

_Introduction_

He's been gone too long this time, and he knows it.

If the scolding from Katara and the sight of his niece and nephews growing bigger hadn't been a good indication, the sight before him would be.

He's been gone for several years, spending time in the South Pole, ensuring that some other leader has been nominated. He had spent some of it on Kyoshi Island, but he and Suki had known it wouldn't work, with most of his time spent in Republic City and hers spent in the Fire Nation providing protection to Zuko's family, or out with the other Warriors as hired guardswomen.

The sight before him has him flummoxed. When Katara had told him to go see Toph, he had seen the gleam of something in her eye that meant someone somewhere had a secret. He didn't think it would be _this._

Sokka is not expecting to see his best friend cradling a baby to her chest like it is the most natural thing in the world.

"Is it yours?"

Toph snickers, enjoying the scene she was getting from her feet. Sokka, the man who always has an answer, is standing in her doorway gaping at her, unsure of what to do. She nods, delighting in the way that he shifts on his feet, clearly uncomfortable with this information. A smile touches her lips, one of pride as Lin snuggles closer, her tiny lips moving in her sleep. "Do I need to explain to you where babies come from, Snoozles?"

The old nickname brings him back to earth, and he emphatically shakes his head. "No!" He rubs the back of his neck, uncomfortable with the next question, but his curiosity is too great. "So, uh, who's the father?"

Even though she can't see him, Toph averts her eyes, and her grip on Lin tightens subconsciously. Her answer is voiced just as hesitantly as his question. "He's…not around."

Sokka's shoulders droop with relieved tension and sympathy. He moves forward to give her a hug, but then checks himself mid-step. She won't accept that, this strong woman who is now facing him, cradling her precious daughter to her chest, daring him to treat her like anything less than the courageous woman she is.

So he steps forward and curls his arms around her shoulders, pulling her close but careful not to jostle Lin, who gurgles at his presence. Pressing his lips against her dark hair, he murmurs, "You don't need him. He's an idiot."

Toph's chuckle is a mixture of relief, gratitude, and whole-hearted agreement.

* * *

_Flight/Fight_

Lin is four the night some idiot decides to test the new chief of police by kidnapping her daughter.

Toph awakes from her nest of blankets with the notion that something is very, very wrong. She has eschewed a bed even into her adult life—too many years of traveling with her friends and the need to be close to the earth mean that she hates beds that are raised off the floor—and so she slips her feet out of the blankets and waits for them to give her the information she needs.

The moment it happens, she is frozen. There is no little heartbeat to sense, no tiny breaths from the room beyond that her ears have become attuned to hearing. Her daughter is gone.

This knowledge brings a manic frenzy, and Toph springs fully to her feet, screaming with rage. The earth around her reacts to her fury and anger and fear, rippling in spasms around her. Several of her neighbors awaken to swear that the earth has just roiled beneath them.

Snatching at her old clothes—no police uniform, what she has in mind for the man who has her daughter would not be sanctioned by the police—Toph dons them and throws out a desperate plea to an old friend through the earth, to bring her an ally.

Then she is gone, racing across the earth as only she can, her feet and ears attuned to only one thing: her daughter's heartbeat, pattering away from her quickly, far too quickly.

When the doors of Sokka's house are thrown open in the middle of the night, his first instinct is to roll out of his bed and snatch at the weapons that he always keeps by his side. There is his boomerang, and the short sword that Master Piandao presented him with as a gift. (It is no space sword, but still…) He is out of his bed, weapons in head, before he fully registers the intruder. When he does, he stares in confusion.

Either he's dreaming, or a fully grown badgermole has just broken down both doors of his house and is standing in his room.

The great beast turns its head and snuffles at him, a sort of _Well, what are you waiting for? _Never dropping his weapons, Sokka gazes at the blind eyes in amazement. The last time he saw one of these, he was a young man, trapped in a cave with several irritating travelers. He frowns. In fact, the one person he knows who has any sort of kinship with them is…

"Toph…" he breathes, and the badgermole snorts as if to say, _Well, of course!_

"Does she need me?"

In answer, the lumbering beast that is so graceful in the earth folds its forelegs underneath itself and drops in an unmistakable invitation. Sokka does not waste anytime clambering up to sit in the crease of its neck—years of riding Appa means that he has some notion of how to ride a giant furry creature.

For a moment, however, he forgets the tension, the worry, and becomes a fifteen-year old again. His blue eyes light up, and some of the lines are erased from his face as a broad grin creases it. "This is so awesome!"

Then he remembers himself, and he lowers his arms, still clutching his weapons. Sheathing both the boomerang and the sword, he pats the badgermole tentatively. "Um, can you take me to Toph?"

With a grumble, the badgermole backs out of his house, nearly taking out a wall in the process—now he knows where Toph got it!—and Sokka readjusts his seat for the odd, rolling gait. Not like Appa at all.

The badgermole pauses in the middle of the street, paws at the earth with one long, silver claw and scents the air. Sokka lifts at fervent prayer to Yue, shining high above, full and bright, that anyone seeing a man perched on a badgermole in the middle of the night has had too much to drink and won't remember it in the morning. The badgermole grumbles once more and takes off at a lope, with Sokka clinging at the short coarse fur in desperation.

Toph tracks the man to the docks, which only causes her anger to mount. The man who has taken her daughter has planned well—he knows that she cannot sense anything on the water. He is about to take his last step from earth to the wooden planks of the docks—safety—when Toph stops him.

She immobilizes him in rock, stopping at his waist so as not to bring any harm to Lin. Her daughter is struggling in the man's arms, green eyes wide with fear, dark hair hanging in clumps around her face. She is sobbing, and Toph's heart clenches. Her little girl.

She'll kill him. Actually, that's what she came here to do. She doesn't want to be seen in her police uniform committing murder. She doubts Aang would approve.

Like she cares about what Twinkletoes thinks while a man holds her daughter hostage. Transporting herself here has not taken much energy, so she finds perverse pleasure in tightening the stone around the man's legs, causing him to sweat and cry out. He lifts Lin higher, as if to throw her, but Toph is too quick for that. She extends the rock, sheathing him in earth up to his chest, and he cannot move.

"Toph!"

Sokka's cry has her huffing out an exasperated breath. While it's great that he got her message and understood, and he willingly came for backup (and maybe, that traitorous part of her whispers, to keep her in check), did he have to get here while she was exacting vengeance? She can feel him as he dismounts from the badgermole, gives it a pat, and watches as it easily tunnels back into the earth.

Then he turns his attention to her, and she feels him blanch at what she is doing. "Toph!"

"Leave it, Sokka," she orders, holding one palm open and curling her fingers inward. The stone reacts as she bends it, and the man grunts in pain, sweat beading his forehead. Only when she is sure he is in pain and unable to move does Toph stalk forward, sightless eyes boring into her captive, while he squirms and whimpers and Lin sobs in tandem.

Toph raises herself a good foot above her normal height in order to gently pry her daughter from the man's grasp. Lin sobs, now with relief, and Toph cradles the small, warm body close, feeling her daughter's heartbeat against her chest and the smell of her sweet hair. She is safe.

She lowers herself back to the ground, and Sokka comes to stand beside her. "Toph." He actually sounds nervous, and she realizes that he has never seen her bend like this. Not even in Yu Dao, when some of her metalbending lily-livers—er, students—were misbehaving. She tips her head up and gives him a smile that is anything but comforting; it's razor sharp and promises death.

"You've never seen me interrogate suspects, have you?"

His hand is heavy and warm on her shoulder, and she can feel his disapproval. "Don't do this, Toph. You don't need this."

Toph snorts, her grip tightening on Lin as they stare at each other, the captured man forgotten. "Don't give me that, 'this will only hurt you more' speech, Sokka. That only works on Twinkletoes."

She is nearly vibrating with rage, and it feels right to bury this man under rock and stone, to crush him into powder through the sheer force and weight of the earth, to punish him for attempting to steal her daughter.

Sokka's voice is quiet, and she's not sure she's ever heard him quite this solemn. "Enough, Toph. Let your men pick him up in the morning. You've done enough."

The man watches them, wide-eyed, breathing heavily. His dark eyes flash with some relief at Sokka's words, and Toph turns away from him, disgusted. She doesn't want to him to have a reprieve. He doesn't deserve that.

Sokka makes no move to take Lin from her as they turn away and begin the walk back to her house, but he stiffens as she begins to move her right hand, and the man's cries begin in earnest again. Toph's other hand shields Lin's ears from the noise, but Sokka winces as bones crack, earth rumbles, and the man begins to scream.

Setting his jaw, Sokka turns back and reaches behind his shoulder, loosening his boomerang. He can't bring himself to look at what was once a man and is rapidly changing into something far more grotesque. One throw and the screaming cuts off; the resulting silence is eerie. The boomerang flits back through the air into his hand, and Toph does not say a word as he uses the hem of his tunic to wipe off the blood.

They are quiet for most of the walk back, Toph murmuring to Lin as the child slowly calms herself into a doze, lulled by the protection her mother's arms.

Sokka makes no attempt to leave when they finally reach her house, and Toph does not try to dissuade him from coming inside. Truth be told, she is grateful for the support. As she lowers Lin back into her bed and resists the urge to drag the tiny bed into her room for added security, she finds that Sokka is setting up camp in the middle of the room.

His blue eyes are narrowed, and daring her to contradict him. "I'm staying."

Now the her rage is cooled, the blind earthbender can feel some real relief. She arches an eyebrow to hide it, curiosity coloring her tone. "Any reason why?"

Sokka doesn't reply immediately, only rolls himself into a blanket and arranges his weapons within arm's reach. "A badgermole redecorated my house earlier tonight. I don't like the new open space." Toph nods. It is an old fear they both share, one born of spending months on the run while facing Ozai. Toph can feel him smile at the next words. "Besides, you owe me new doors for that house."

That surprises a chuckle out of the woman, but she turns away and hastily moves into her room before he can sense that it is about to turn into a sob. Once her voice is steady and she is once again under control, she speaks.

"Sokka?"

There is a faint rustling, and she can tell that he is turning over, watching her through the doorway. "Yeah, Toph?"

Toph face is pale and expressionless in the moonlight as she stares at him. "Don't tell Aang about tonight."

It is a difficult thing she asks of him, and they both know it. Aang is now family, has been since the day they stood in the South Pole—how Toph hates it there!—on spot where it all began, and Aang and Katara spoke their binding vows. Toph is asking him to go against family and keep her secret.

Finally, she gets her answer. "I won't," Sokka says softly, firmly, and Toph knows that is the best she is going to get.

From that night on, Sokka stays. Even after Toph pays for his damaged doors, even after Lin begins to grow and Katara invites him to live on Air Temple Island with them. He stays, and an understanding grows between the two of them. No vows are spoken, no betrothal necklaces made or given, but all the same, they come to an agreement: He is here to stay, no matter what may come. It will take awhile for Toph to adjust to the idea. However, Sokka is patient.

* * *

_Learning_

"Momma, where's my daddy?"

Toph lowers her chopsticks, easily balancing the ball of uneaten rice between them. All these years later, she somehow managed to retain the manners that Poppy Beifong instilled in her.

Spirits, but she has no idea how.

Beside her, she can tell that Sokka has put his utensils down as well, judging by the _clink _and rattle of his chopsticks against his bowl. Toph ignores the way he clears his throat and turns her sightless eyes towards her daughter across the table.

Lin is eight now, and she has the right to know. Maybe not the full story, but enough. Toph spent her childhood being lied to and guarded zealously, cocooned in the life her parents thought was proper for her. She refuses to do that to Lin.

"Your father doesn't live with us," she tells Lin gently, and she can sense Sokka's brows start to knit in concern. If she stops talking, he'll start protesting, and she doesn't want that.

"Did he not like us?" Lin wonders, her light voice full of a child's worry, and Toph can't help but give her a reassuring smile and try to figure out how to answer.

"He liked us, honey, but there were other things he liked more." _Like money, and taller women with more to offer. _

Lin tilts her head, considering this news. "That's stupid."

Sokka chokes on a laugh, and Toph showers her daughter with a proud smile, then remembers she shouldn't be teaching her daughter bias. "He just had other plans."

Lin thinks about this again, decides that it is acceptable, and asks another question. "Are Uncle Aang and Aunt Katara your brother and sister?"

Toph grins. "That would make a very uncomfortable-"

Sokka interrupts her by lightly kicking her in the shin and glaring, before taking control of the conversation. Whatever he is about to say is delayed by a yelp as Toph shoves a small pillar of stone against his shin. For a moment, he doubles over the table in pain while Lin watches curiously and Toph hides a triumphant smile. Never mess with an earthbender in her own house!

Lost in her inner gloating, she is missing most of what Sokka is saying. "Aunt Katara is my sister, and Aang is her husband. Toph is our friend."

Lin thinks about this. Toph has not hidden much about the world from her. "So, they're not my family?"

Sokka is silenced by this, so Toph once again steps in. "An honorary family," she tells her daughter quietly, reaching out to lightly punch Sokka in the arm. "One with ties of friendship instead of blood."

Lin is quiet for the rest of the meal, but she seems satisfied.

Years later, when Lin embarks on her relationship with Tenzin, no one is quite sure what to make of it. Katara looks worried, Aang has a long talk with his son, and Sokka is more concerned about Lin's virtue. Toph alone is unconcerned; her daughter learned long ago that they were not related by blood, so what does it matter?

"Let the kids have their fun," she points out to Katara, who still looks like she's ready to open her mouth and protest. "They're not much older than you and Aang were when you guys started having kids."

This is not the right thing to say, but Toph doesn't mind. Years later, and it's still fun to see Sugar Queen get all riled up!

Distancing herself from Air Temple Island, Toph finds herself in the market near the police station, enjoying her lunch of pickled fish and salted cabbage leaves—the merchant had stared at her when she bought them, but maybe it was her uniform?—and a sweet mango.

Coming to a stop in the middle of the marketplace, Toph finds herself distracted by something beneath her armor. Is her space bracelet _vibrating? _

This isn't the shivering that she has to concentrate to hear, the slight fluttering that signals the presence of a metalbender. Just as her bracelet—wrapped around her upper left arm—found her original three students in Yu Dao, it is now also the way that she has found and fleshed out her first corps of metalbending police officer. But this, this is something completely different.

She finds herself in front of an armory, and if anything, the vibrating gets worse, nearly clanging against the metal of her uniform. She tries to sense anything through the gloom, but there's nothing there, only an old man who is tending the fire. Is it him?

No. As she turns in his direction, the vibrating stops as if cut by a knife, but when she swivels to the right, it comes alive again. She is thoroughly confused, and it irks her. What is going on?

There! Whatever is calling her bracelet is coming from that bundle of rags.

She gestures to it. "What is that?"

The old man's smile is bright, and he seems genuinely pleased by her interest. "I found this several years ago near the sea. It was almost rusted, but I repaired the blade, and now I'm just waiting to see if can be sold."

Her bracelet is making her teeth ache and her head buzz. "Can I touch it?" She grits out, a wild guess suddenly rising in the back of her mind, too wild to be plausible. However, if the bracelet is reacting this badly…

The moment her hand closes over the sword's hilt, the bracelet stops its assault, seeming to sigh in relief. As for herself, Toph is biting back a crow of triumph. She _knows _the feel of this sword, knows the length of the hilt, knows the way the pommel used to bump against the back of a young man as he ran. The leather strap is completely worn away, but that is replaceable. It is not as it was, but it is more than Toph ever believed she could find, and that is enough.

She turns to the old man, and he sharpens, sensing that something has happened that he will not be privy to. "How much?"

Haggling is such a fun game, but she can't rob him, not when he's given her such a gift. She agrees to a higher price than she normally would, and she's sure that the man knows he is being rewarded. Neither of them say anything, and Toph uncharacteristically leaves the rest of the day's duties to her men while she hurries home, her prize clutched her hands.

She doesn't need to see Sokka's face as she presents him with his space sword later that evening, unable to wait any longer. She can feel his joy, he disbelief, his ecstacy, and his arms around her and his lips on hers are all the thanks she didn't know she wanted.

* * *

_Protector _

Toph comes back to consciousness slowly, every muscle throbbing, her entire body seeming to resist the idea of continuing to live. She is sprawled on the polished floor of the city hall, her hair falling out of its bun, her feet throbbing so much that she can't sense anything around her. She has a moment of panic that she has truly been blinded, but there is too much pain and confusion for her to think on that for very long.

Someone grunts as they pull themselves towards her; Toph stiffens and tries to rise, but her arms and legs won't obey her commands. She's sluggish, her mind still foggy, but adrenaline begins to circulate through her veins at the idea of being found helpless. She lifts her face towards her assailant, but she finds that however it might be is having a hard time being mobile as well. One of her men then, and not Yakone. He has fled by now, surely. Toph coughs the dust out her lungs, wheezing as she tries to push herself off the floor again, but she fails.

Then there is a rough hand on her cheek, and she calms somewhat, recognizing the calluses, the fingertips rough from years spent traveling. She knows those hands, and she knows the voice that calls to her.

"Spirits, Toph," Sokka chokes out, squirming closer. He has been affected by the blood-bending too, she can tell from his rough voice and the way he sounds like he's been trampled by Appa. He clearly can't move more than she can, but he has fought his way towards her in order to ascertain that she's still alive. She feels a warm brush of affection for him, and when his lips press lightly against hers, she responds firmly, sharing his breath and just relishing the fact that they're _alive._

"Too many close calls," Sokka grumbles, forcing himself to his feet and bending down to pick her up and set her on hers. The minute her bare feet touch the stone floor, she straightens, feeling more like herself. She knows what's happening now. Most of the courtroom has scattered, her men are struggling to regroup, and she can feel Aang as he pursues Yakone. Her blood burns to go after the man who has evaded her capture for so long, and she doesn't quite trust Twinkletoes to take him down completely, Avatar State or not. She needs to understand for herself that Yakone has been defeated. She has others to think about besides herself now.

Thankfully, Sokka understands. He slings her arm around his shoulders without question and they begin their hobbling, painful way towards the doors. Too many years of backing Aang means they can't stay behind, even if they wanted to.

Just as they are at the door, Sokka voices reassurance to Toph's unspoken fear. "He won't touch Lin. We won't let him." Toph can feel the conviction in his voice, the determination, and a little part of her relaxes. Sometimes, she forgets what it's like when someone has her back.

It's a nice feeling.

* * *

_Understanding_

The night Toph tells Sokka about Lin and Tenzin's break, she is absurdly relieved to see him immediately get up and head for the door, grabbing his space sword along the way.

He tries the door and finds it, unsurprisingly, unable to be moved. Toph has clenched the metal shut with a mere pinching of her fingers.

He spins around, blue eyes narrowed. "Let me out."

Toph regards him quietly, not saying a word. She doesn't know why she doubted him, why she had foolishly thought that he might side with his sister and nephew over her and Lin.

"Sokka," she says, "what were you going to do?"

"I was planning on punching him," Sokka admits, still standing in front of the doors, waiting for the moment she'll release the metal and he can make his raging way to Air Temple Island.

Toph's eyebrows arch. "I don't think Twinkletoes and Sugar Queen would like you confronting your nephew," she points out, "and I know Lin wouldn't thank you."

Sokka deflates at that, his shoulders slumping, and Toph gets up and goes to him, wrapping her arms around his middle and pressing her forehead against his chest. She knows her daughter, and she knows that Lin will grieve in her own way, in her own time, but Sokka trying to intervene won't do anyone any good.

Sokka sighs and wraps an arm around her in response. "I don't like it," he mutters into her hair, his lips warm. "I don't like it when she's hurt."

Toph looks up, moved by the protectiveness and the pain and love in his voice, and suddenly she admits what she has been hiding from herself: he loves them. He loves her, and her daughter, more than Lin's real father ever had, and that is enough to causes her to rock back, her breath catching in her throat.

She feels him watching her, and she knows that they are at an impasse. What they do now will define their relationship for the rest of their lives. Without a word, she stretches up to kiss him, letting him know that she recognizes his love for her, for Lin, and she loves him, adores him for being there for her, even when she was twelve and didn't know that he was what she wanted.

If Aang and Katara ever learned that that was the night that Sokka joined Toph in her bed, they wouldn't have been surprised. However, Toph was not one to release secrets lightly, and Sokka's companionship and love was one she guarded jealously over the years.

Weeks later, when Lin attempts to arrest Pema, Sokka doesn't find it nearly as amusing as Toph does.

He glares at Toph while an unrepentant Lin watches them both, daring them to say something to her. "She's learned too much from you," he complains, running a hand through his graying hair, looking older than ever. Lin's mouth moves up into a small smile, knowing that while he may grumble, he won't chastise her for very long.

Toph can only lean back in her seat and continue to laugh.

* * *

_Complete _

"Lin, are those your parents?"

Lin offers a small smile as her fellow guardswoman peers around her to get a look at the petite, fierce woman in gray and gold—the colors of the police—and the tall, dignified man in Water Tribe garb who currently wincing away from the small woman's fist, slung lightly at his bicep. Lin does not offer many details about her life to her academy mates, and so they are of course curious.

There are many people in the city hall, here to celebrate the graduation of many of the police cadets into captains of the force, Lin among them. Toph had kept her face solemn while she attached the metal insignia to her daughter's uniform, but through the earth and the beating her mother's heart, Lin could tell that she was proud. Sokka had not bothered to hide his pride, and had beamed at her throughout the entire ceremony from where he sat in a place of honor with the Avatar and his sister. Lin's smile grows a bit broader as she watches them move off to join Aang and Katara. She dips her head to hide the unshed tears for a moment, but when she lifts her head, her answer is clear. "Yes," she answers simply, "those are my parents."

* * *

**A/N: Reviews are appreciated! **


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